World Science Fiction #2: Reloading the Future

by Francesco Verso (Editor), Ian McDonald, Vandana Singh

Science fiction happens everywhere! This is why it’s about time we reloaded the future we’ve known so far with visions from a much wider selection of voices, languages and it’s about time we moved from the old “Sense of Wonder” to the new “Sense of Wander” – a useful concept that will allow us to discover the many hidden gems just waiting to be translated from languages other than English and cultures others than the Western one.

This second collection of short stories published on Future Fiction features 15 stories from 13 countries and translations from 5 different languages, including authors such as Vandana Singh, Chen Qiufan, Ian McDonald, K.A. Teryna, Anil Menon, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Stamatis Stamatopolous, Seyong Jeong, Martha Riva Palacio Obon, Renan Bernardo, Clifton Gachagua, Santiago Belluco, Hassan Abdulrazzak, and Morgan Swim. The translations are made by Stephanie Polakis (Greek), Alex Shvartsman (Russian), Emily Jin (Chinese), Sophie Bowman (Korean), Will Morningstar (Spanish).

Table of Contents
Introduction by Francesco Verso
The Guile by Ian McDonald (UK)
The Colour that Defines Me by Stamatis Stamatopolous (Greece)
Medusa by K.A. Teryna (Russia)
The Ancestral Temple in a Box by Chen Qiufan (China)
The Flowering by Seyong Jeong (South Korea)
Indra’s Web by Vandana Singh (India)
Biography of Algae by Martha Riva Palacio Obon (Mexico)
The Man Without Quintessence by Anil Menon (India)
Anticipation of Hollowness by Renan Bernardo (Brasil)
To Gaze at the Sun by Clifton Gachagua (Nigeria)
The Standard of Ur by Hassan Abdulrazzak (Irak)
The State Machine by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (Sri Lanka)
Sunset Blues by Wanini Kimemiah (Kenya)
Into the Biosafety Disposal Forest by Santiago Belluco (Brasil)
Copies Without Originals by Morgan Swim (U.S.A.)

248 pages, Paperback

Published July 9, 2021

About the author

Francesco Verso (Bologna, 1973) is a multiple-award Science Fiction writer and editor. He has published: Antidoti umani, e-Doll, Nexhuman, Bloodbusters, Futurespotting and I camminatori (made of The Pulldogs and No/Mad/Land). Nexhuman and Bloodbusters have been published in Italy, US, UK and China. I camminatori will be published by Flame Tree Press as The Roamers in Spring 2023. He works as editor of Future Fiction, scouting and translating the best SF from 12 languages and more than 30 countries. He’s the Honorary Director of the Fishing Fortress SF Academy of Chongqing. He may be found online at www.futurefiction.org.

Reviews

[Rhuddem Gwelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I simply don't like short stories (there are, of course, exceptions) and I only bought this because I want to support global diversion in Sci fi. So, most of these did nothing for me but two stood out as very good: 'Anticipation of Hollowness' by Renan Bernardo from Brazil, about a loser girl and her dying android friend, and 'Copies without Originals' by Morgan Swim from the US about an art museum in a world where the human race has died out and the android and human clone who together find the meaning of art.